Leaderboard

DADS 706, In the sixties they were laid flat behind baler and there were truckers that we called our roadsiders that we hired to pick up behind baler and either roadside it waiting for buyers trucks to pick up or then they took to yard to stack for storage. WE shot for 110-130 lbs Per bale BTW out here anyone handling hay uses hay hooks. In videos that I see of Mid West no one uses them.? Our bales were perhaps more solid and hooks did not slip out.? These road siders had bob tail trucks and used the side loader mounted to truck . At the stack if they were topping for tarps and winter storage we had a group of guys that had Hay boom trucks and their specialty was booming hay off trucks to tall hay stacks. Trucker were paid by bale . Boomers were paid by truck load. The boomers had radios in the pickup and were on call by truckers. Then the 70's & 80'S rolled around and little by little bales were placed on side behind baler by removing couple of pins on bale shoot and left for the NH bale wagon or the Freeman bale wagon . Again guys had businesses of bale wagons and went farm to farm either road siding or bringing hay to yard . By this time the boom trucks were being replace by hay squeeze and toping off for winter could be done by a good squeeze operator. Very little hay was placed in enclosed barns , Few of us had tall Pole barns that the squeeze could stack hay inside for winter sales in my case. Most dairies used a combo of Pole barns and topped off stacks tarped for winter. You have to remember our hay is irrigated and we were getting 7-8 cuttings a year with average tonnage for year about 7-10 tons per acre . There was no way the farmer had time to deal with hay bales non mechanical , Not to say in early 50's and 60's I was 5 & 10 years old I got to help my Dad pickup two wire bales but he soon was hiring road siders. In my day of farming hay 1955-2000 We Cut ,rake , baled, Hay was mostly baled at night because dew was needed to preserve leaves on Alfalfa but too much dew and it molded ,so lot of nights sleeping in pickup out in field waiting on dew. As soon as hay was baled regrowth was coming back needed hay out asap and start water back . We cut on 26-32 day schedule 26 for test hay Spring & Fall and 32-35 for summer dry stock hay. I watered twice per cutting, some watered once per cutting, but their yield reflected it but their TDN might be up, but for a commercial grower, usually price did not make up for volume. I have seen a transformation in hay handling out here , from 7ft hay mower, single rakes, balers that needed two men one each side to thread wire , then the three wire . then the three twine and on to today with disk bine swathers that travel almost at road speed cutting hay , Big Bale balers and big bale hay wagons to pick them up in same fashion as the small bale wagons. squeezes that are capable of loading more the one big bale at time, Double hay rakes all hydraulic that let you fly up the field merging two and three windrows together. I also have seen hay in the 10-15.00 a ton back in the 50-60's to 300.00 a ton for premium milk cow hay today. Tony

Well my case 2094 is coming on well now gearbox completely rebuilt, stripped the cab and doing a bit of fabrication work on the rear end. Soon have the oil in her and running then it's time to refurb the rest of the front end.

Out here most large hay fields are laser leveled ,1/4 mile runs, hay is flood irrigated with low rounded water borders being about 100 ft apart . So fields are pretty smooth , The danger is; if you hit a badger hole or any other type hole at that speed, its going to hurt. However , some argue that swathers have low profile wide tires to mitigate the holes . but crazier things have happened. Tony

....great pictures, Matt !! re your oats and peas......down under, we used that combo for baleage.......however, the cattle would leave all the oat stalks...and just forage around for the peas......hence we don't bother with that combination anymore A bit of a bummer really , to see a crop just as you have shown/described....and to see the majority of it wasted during the winter feed ing ...... At present , we are strip feeding oats... ( electric fence ...).... about 30 inches high......plus feeding "meadow' baleage as well......Cattle do well on that mix.. Mike

This old codger has been pretty slow for last few days. (I think Gary's boiler repair job last week tired me out all the way down here to Mississippi) Early corn and soybeans are turning fast down this way--------may see some combines in the field late next week. Highly unusual year. Some crops maturing------some being irrigated-----some never planted. And Wrangler sez Hay to everyone. DD

Thanks Tony. That all makes sense. But one correction..... I always used a hay hook. I know one farmer who made his. They were a bit longer. Go to any farm store (at least in this area) and you can still buy hay hooks. Mine are still hanging on my NH68 down in the barn. Speed, yes I think the new MacDon's are talking 15-18 mph in the field. You couldn't do that here, but under a circle I imagine you could. I remember a couple times in my youth I stuck the 560 in 5th going across the field.... whoohooo. I can't imagine mowing hay that fast.

Tony, i am doing this project with the restoration program but not with my school. It will be just me working on the tractor. The tractor restoration program is pretty good and i am glad to be a part of it. BTW this one is going to be way better than mel's

Gary, it looks like you have a very nice stand of oats. I also like your new deck on the bundle wagon. I have three hay racks but need to redeck one. Things take time but I’ll get there. My oats is all bundled up into square bales and stacked in the sheds now. Just finished yesterday picking up the bales. As soon as it started to turn, I knocked it all down with my 12’ haybine. It seemed like it turned in two days this year and I had to be on the ball. This was my view from the 560 Farmall, my IH tractor on a Montana farm! ? It dried very quickly and I only flipped it once with the roll-bar rake to dry the bottom before punching out the squares of pain. I got 535 bales on my 18 acres and 292 on the neighbor’s 13.5 acres. The problem with all this was I was given 24 additional acres of grass that had to be cut at the same time as my oats. And that field gave up 579 bales. So I was spread thin but managed. Plus the dreaded baler breakdown that cost $500 for a USED part ($2300+ new). This was the best veiw of them all. The last empty field of the season. I put up 2,835 square bales over the last 6 weeks and cut/raked another 150 acres that a friend rolled into 175 round bales. Our production isn’t the greatest but we get what we get from the land without irrigation. The elk took a noticeable toll on both of my fields. Each had an area closest to the woods that was pretty much eaten to the ground. I’d say I lost 20% to the animals. Maybe more, who knows. Can’t do anything about it so I go on. Here is an albino ground squirrel. I had never seen one before and this field had three of them. The hawks will likely get them now that their cover is gone. I also cut about 10 acres of oats and peas for a friend. The mix grows extremely well and is actually about 5 feet tall. The problem is that it lodges easily also. So my haybine helped pull it up and the conditioner rolls allow it to dry faster. The pea pods pop as they go through! Lol. I wish I knew how to post a video, the pictures really don’t show how tall and thick it is. Sorry about the green tractor. My 560 started to make a metallic noise in the PTO, I think a bearing went. Just something else to fix now in the off season!

The internet has been my friend !! MAC